#AusELT chat on Motivating GE students to Write on 6 June 2013
Storified by cioccas · Sun, Feb 18 2018 01:26:12
[From #AusELT Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/AusELT/permalink/521162877919760/ ]
@SophiaKhan4think you are right. In my mind it usually goes with a typical global course book, eg headway etc. Often in these books writing is relegated to some kind of extension activity tagged on the end of the unit and often ignored by GE teachers in favour of more 'communicativewhich this case, spoken) activities. There's also a consequent feeling on the part of *both* Ts and Sts that writing is boring and should only be set as homework if at all. So writing ends up v.underdeveloped as a skill with GE sts. Do you have this problem in your context?
Lesley @cioccas
Sophia, I was more curious about what 'General English' encompasses as in my context I think it is nearly all general with a couple of of academic courses and occasional specialised ones.
Re your question, in my context (adult migrants & refugees mostly), we get that attitude from some students who really can't see the point of improving their written English skills, but most really want to do more writing. That said, most don't like doing writing in class and would often rather just spend the whole lesson speaking and discussing, but they recognise that they need to work on writing and are quite motivated.
Karen Benson
Looks like we are having the chat here lol. Sophia, you hit the nail on the head as to what I was thinking. It seems we really do our students a disservice if we do not provide enough opportunity to write. Like spoken production, written production provides an important opportunity for students to notice the gaps in their language/skill base (Swain output hypothesis). It is possible to create communicative & fun opportunities for classroom writing - we just need to be creative. Food for a great chat methinks
Ahmed Al Romi
Haha thanks Karen! Do you think the student’s disinterest comes from the fact that GE writing covers a broad array of English topics and is often not seen as focused on specific topics? IELTS students on the other hand take it seriously. But could it be due to the extra focused and limited styles of writing that IELTS students are required to perfect for the test? While GE students have no clear goal other than what they have in the course book?
Nailah Nascimento Rokic
Some of my students, including IELTS students didn't seem uninterested in writing, what I could notice though was how much they struggled not only with language but also in developing the topic itself. I believe that comes from the lack of reading and keeping up with the news.
Kylie Tyler
Writing for me. Never thought of it as a noticing tool for gaps they have Karen Benson. For the chat: Are speaking and writing different in this sense? Can a student's writing diagnose general production problems/gaps? Or are they two separate skills with separate issues?
Then the conversation continued on Twitter...
It's the #AusELT Twitter chat this evening. 18.30 GMT+8 The topic is "Motivating GE students to write."
MT “@TeachingEnglish: inspiring ideas to bring the writing process alive ow.ly/lJ7js Useful for tonight's #AusELT chat at 8.30pm
I'm half here, half lurking... #AusELT
Ok. Let's start. #AusELT chat tonight - Motivating General English Students to write.
Can we start with a definition of General English for any non-ELT/ELICOS people out there? Any takers? #AusELT
MT @trylingual: Can we start with a definition of General English for any non-ELT/ELICOS people out there? Any takers? #AusELT
@trylingual Yes, would be good to know what ELICOS people mean by GE to start #AusELT
#auselt General English = GE = grammar-based syllabus, integrated skills, familiar topics, appeals to range of visa types & students
@trylingual Is Genral English anything that's not for Academic or other specialist corse ? #AusELT
@ElkySmith And how do we think writing fits into this picture? #AusELT
@ElkySmith Does it have to be grammar-based? #auselt
GE- English for General communication purposes. Varied themes, Usually grammar-based syllabus, coursebooks- Headway, Face2Face etc #AUSelt
@cioccas #AusELT Basically :-)
@trylingual It's what they do when they aren't doing IELTS. ;) Improving macro-skills, grammar & vocabulary. #auselt
@ElkySmith Interesting! Not what I'd thought. It's more a text-based (or genre-based approach in my sector. #AusELT
MT @trylingual: @ElkySmith And how do we think writing fits into this picture? #AusELT
@Penultimate_K #auselt 'Macro', yes :-) Listening in a general way, speaking in a general way, etc.
Read article today abt using AR to improve compositions. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.… AR data provided vocab and content for wrtg. #AUSelt